2023 was another great year for horror. Crowd-pleasing studio scares, low-budget creepers, surprisingly awesome sequels, and one particularly tremendous Spanish-language horror film—all of which made this list of the best horror movies of 2023.
I actually can’t remember the last time there was a bad year for horror, pandemic notwithstanding. In a year when mainstream cinema was beset by superhero fatigue and studios finally began seeing the limits of prioritizing quantity over quality, horror remained steadfast: there were films of various budgets, genre sensibilities, and perspectives; low-brow high-budget flicks, high-brow low-budget flicks, and everything in between—with room for each one to find its audience.
As with our list of the best movies of 2023, I’ve arranged the best horror movies of the year in order of release date. If I had to pick, When Evil Lurks would easily take the number-one spot. Everything else comes second.
M3GAN
M3GAN stars Allison Williams as Gemma, a roboticist developing a lifelike doll powered by A.I. and programmed to be “a child’s best friend and a parent’s greatest ally.” When Gemma’s sister dies, leaving Gemma to care for her niece Amie, M3GAN’s abilities are put to the test. M3GAN is Blumhouse Productions at its best: mid-budget, campy horror that doesn’t take itself too seriously and avoids crossing the threshold into hyper-self-awareness. It also cements screenwriter Akela Cooper (Malignant) as a genre great. Although Blumhouse initially released a less violent PG-13 cut in theaters, the studio rectified its error with an R-rated cut available to stream on Peacock. –Britt Hayes
Skinamarink
Kyle Edward Ball’s feature directorial debut is a lo-fi experiment in evocation. Skinamarink‘s scant plot—two little kids wake up in the middle of the night to discover their parents are gone—is a strength, encouraging viewers to recall their own childhood fears and anxieties. Filmed in a dark home primarily lit by the bluish glow of a television and with minimal dialogue, Skinamarink may seem tedious to some. But these elements ultimately have a lulling effect that makes its scares more effective, and a formlessness that invites you to imagine god-knows-what in every shadow and whisper. –B.H.
Infinity Pool
With Infinity Pool, Brandon Cronenberg is three-for-three in making high-concept low-key sci-fi horror. Following Antiviral and Possessor, Cronenberg returns with Alexander Skarsgard and Cleopatra Coleman as a couple vacationing at a resort in a fictional coastal country with a perverted sense of justice. While out driving one night with their new friend, played by a particularly playful Mia Goth, the couple accidentally hit a local with their rental car—a capital offense. The authorities offer them a choice reserved for wealthy tourists: a clone may be executed in their stead. And so a hideous new fetish is born. –B.H.
Beau Is Afraid
2023 felt like the year when we finally stopped debating whether or not certain movies qualify as “horror.” Which was great for the discourse around Ari Aster’s latest. With Beau Is Afraid, Aster took his blank check and made a surrealist tragicomedy about one man’s odyssey to get home for his overbearing mother’s funeral. Joaquin Phoenix is the eponymous Beau, a walking set of neuroses deeply traumatized by his mother’s narcissism. The end result is disorienting and hilarious, with unexpected flourishes (Mariah Carey, a giant monster penis) and a visual specificity that answers a hypothetical question no one has ever needed to ask: what if Wes Anderson had an untreated anxiety disorder? –B.H.
Evil Dead Rise
After 43 years, the Evil Dead franchise is still going strong. In Evil Dead Rise, director Lee Cronin’s entry in the venerable series, single mom Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) is taken over by the Deadites when an earthquake traps her family in their derelict Los Angeles apartment. Once she’s infected, Ellie falls prey to every parent’s worst nightmare: turning on her own kids. Evil Dead Rise is a taut, atmospheric thriller, with moments that will make you jump out of your skin. Oh, and that cheese grater scene everyone’s talking about? Yeah, it’s just as morbid as you think. –Julia Glassman
The Boogeyman
The best Stephen King adaptations aren’t afraid to deviate from the source material. Rob Savage followed up a pair of screen-life horror films (Host and Dashcam) with an adaptation of King’s 1973 short story that reiterates the narrative as a sequel of sorts. Widowed therapist Will (Chris Messina) is unexpectedly visited by a bereft man (David Dastmalchian) who claims an entity killed all three of his children. Will’s daughters Sadie (Yellowjackets‘ Sophie Thatcher) and Sawyer (Vivien Lyra Blair) soon find themselves targeted by the same creepy entity. The Boogeyman avoids the broad-appeal trap, instead delivering a fully solid and surprisingly spooky thriller with good performances and an effective antagonist. –B.H.
Talk to Me
In Talk to Me, grieving teenager Mia (Sophie Wilde) is intrigued by the latest social media fad: getting high through spirit possession. To distract herself from the death of her mother, Mia decides to try it for herself, but things start to veer out of control when the conjured spirits start to break down the barrier to the physical world. Talk to Me has all the scares a horror fan could ask for, with an honest and authentic human story at its heart. –J.G.
Birth/Rebirth
Marin Ireland is in two of this year’s best horror movies: The Boogeyman, in which she has a small but impactful role; and Birth/Rebirth, in which she’s cast as a co-lead opposite Judy Reyes. (Side note: Is Judy Reyes the Scrubs star with the most interesting post-network career??) Laura Moss’ feature directing debut is one of a few iterations on Frankenstein released in 2023, and follows Celie (Reyes), a nurse struggling with the sudden death of her young daughter, whose body has been “misplaced” by the hospital. Celie’s search leads her to Rose (Ireland), a brusque morgue technician who has discovered how to reanimate the dead and prolong life. Unfortunately for them both, the process involves acquiring materials from pregnant women.
Birth/Rebirth is a compelling little chamber piece with great performances from Reyes, an effortlessly empathic and natural actor; and Ireland, a consistently unselfconscious character actor who should really be a much bigger deal. –B.H.
Saw X
After two failed attempts to extend the Saw franchise, Jigsaw is back, baby. Franchise vet Kevin Greutert returned to direct Saw X, which finally solved the problem that’s dogged the series since Saw III. Set between the first and second films, Saw X allows Tobin Bell to return as everyone’s favorite death-trap architect, John Kramer. Coping with a terminal cancer diagnosis, John is convinced to travel to Mexico to receive an experimental treatment—only to discover that he’s been conned. So Jigsaw does what Jigsaw does best, and this time he’s playing all the hits. Shawnee Smith returns as unhinged apprentice Amanda (with an assist from Billy the puppet, of course) in a sequel that’s far better than it has any right to be, and features one of the most hilariously earnest movie endings in recent memory. I’m willing to remain optimistic for Saw XI, even if the odds aren’t in its favor. –B.H.
When Evil Lurks
When Evil Lurks begins with brothers Pedro (Ezequiel Rodriguez) and Jimi (Demián Salomon) discovering a dismembered body, which leads them to the rural home of a family whose eldest is possessed: Uriel’s increasingly bloated body is pregnant with a demon. A failed exorcism precipitates an impulsive decision to defy superstition, allowing the demon to spread like a virus throughout the town. DemÃan Rugna’s follow-up to his first feature, Terrified, retains a few elements of that film—Pedro is a skeptic confronted by a supernatural evil that is only exacerbated by modern methods—and it’s to this film’s benefit that Rugna doesn’t spend much time explaining the rules the demon plays by, maintaining a sense of intrigue when a demon-killing device is suddenly introduced with little exposition in the third act.
There are moments of intense, unforgettable brutality and terror, softened by the absurdity of watching Pedro continually reject common sense and ancient wisdom alike, putting his family in danger in an effort to preserve his self-interests (it’s easy to see why his wife left him). Ultimately, When Evil Lurks is a relevant allegory about the consequences of ignoring fucked-up shit rather than confronting it. A+. –B.H.
(featured image: A24 / Universal Pictures / Neon / Illustration by The Mary Sue)
Published: Dec 26, 2023 03:07 pm